Hello all,
Can anyone tell me the names of any schools/foreign language institutes in Taichung,Taiwan where I would only teach adult students? Or, refer me to a source where I could get this information? Thank you very much!!!

Hello all,
Can anyone tell me the names of any schools/foreign language institutes in Taichung,Taiwan where I would only teach adult students? Or, refer me to a source where I could get this information? Thank you very much!!!

Sign me,
Seoul,South Korea

Don't bother. Adults behave like kids here and the kids are easier to teach and less discriminatory. Really. Some schools specialize in Adults (Global Village and David's) and both pay low and offer horrible hours and travel. Once you live in Taichung you'll see the inhuman behavior of folks in traffic and want to teach at one school for most of your classes. Public transit sucks in Taiwan, especially Taichung, most especially compared to South Korea.

I HATED Korea, but enjoyed theaching adults and kids there. Kids here are less monsterous, but just as spoiled and require games and goofiness. Adults and kids here suffer from attention defficit disorder and adutls are pretty disrespectful here. Some will openly groan if they find you boring, regardless if they could leave class at any time and the majority (19 out of 20) dig what you're doing. Adults gossip and plot against folks in groups. I've watched old biddy housewives complement coworkers then high tail it to my classes for an entire day where they try to talk crap about the other teacher. I won't have any of it and change the subject, but they do gossip. Sewing circles are HUGE here (it's the majority of their network TV programming too: gossip) and if you want to make dough teaching adults - you'll be teaching bored, rich, spoiled, poor-educated housewives during your days - who have nothing better to do than to sit in your classes all day and gossip with their sistren. Nights at all adult bushiban, or mixed age bushiban are a better mix of professionals, advanced students and housewives who are actually HOUSE WIVES and do things in their personal life (well-rounded folks). Still, those classes are in the minority, since afternoons and mornings arre your bread and butter. The smaller the city you teach in, the more this becomes the norm.

Teach kids and adults. Trust me on this. Focus only on adults here and you'll be miserable. Somone may beg to differ, but they are in the minority. I'll take kids for daily bread and adults for friends. Adult students can't be trusted in Taiwan. Korea it was the opposite - they were the only people you could trust, for the most part. Japan was the same, except kids were trustworthy too. In Korea - avoid adults. Kids are more open-minded here. Adults are LKK.

They both have a very bad reputation among foreign teachers in Taichung.

What is SMART?

I knew Columbia were low class based on their lurid advertising. They have a huge sign on the corner of Wenhsin and Ying Tsai Rds. It has a chubby teacher (he resembles a high school science teacher) pulling up his pants. In Chinese it says something like "Don't blame yourself for your bad English."

I once called Columbia and it seemed like a podunk outfit started by some scheming ex-pat who wanted to make money off the backs of other ex-pats. None of it is legal and it might be pulling a ICAC type of gray legal Visa situation. At least ICAC were direct with me and I moved onto legal work. Columbia could never put anything in writing, and even if they could, it wasn't legal to begin with: which the creeps were fully aware of. I didn't even work for them but my interactions with them and their increasingly sleazy adverts (fat teachers = poor quality teachers, and then filling the local heads with the continued misconception that what you get out of learning a language is a teacher-exclusive problem) and all of the bad news grumbled around the local grapevine make them seriously bad folks. Columbia is basically no different than pyramid business schemes and whatnot. Snake charmers...

One bit of advice that sounds odd, but: DO NOT WORK FOR OTHER FOREIGNERS IN TAIWAN. I've heard nothing but bad things from my friends who do. Some Taiwanese lao-ban will cheat foreigners, but foreign lao-ban know how to lay it on thick and they know both sides of the game, which makes the deception all the more cunning, dangerous, and ultimately insidious. Foreigners cannot legally own or run cram schools here anyway. Those that could must have a local partner and it's always a 60/40% that is in favor of the local. Want to work for an honest foreigner who (co)owns a business in Taiwan: work in the pubs here, because those are the only honest foreign lao-ban you will run into during your time here teaching - and they can't sponsor your visa

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They called themselves a language center but they're merely an agency. They have all the teachers signed a contract with the most ridiculous terms.
(1)The teacher has to compensate the company if the client (student) is not satisfied.
SMART will lie that your students aren't happy, so they don't have to pay you a dime. If you've a problem with that, they'll tell you that they can sue you and you'll have to compensate them!
(2)Pay day is on the 15th, BUT one thing they just seem to forget to mention is that you're only allowed to get your money between 3pm to 4pm that day. If you can't make it, sorry, say bye bye to your pay. Company policy, so they say.
(3)You've to fill all the required forms and hand in everytime after class. They either will have 3-5 people calling you in one afternoon asking for the papers, or they will use this as an excuse to postpone your pay to the next month.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this posting is indeed accurate, it doesn't sound like any place I would ever want to work for...

Hi TheyCallMeTrinity,
Thank you for the comments. "Adults behave like kids here." Definitely sounds like Korea..ESPECIALLY many Korean women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've heard how many Japanese are the same way (especially the women)..definitely seems to be an Asian thing. YUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I taught some adults in Taipei..they weren't too bad. (nights) I did teach some kids also. I know about the inhuman behavior of people in traffic in Taiwan. I lived in Taipei for 16 months (the most pedestrian-unfriendly city that I've lived in), and visited Taichung a few times. I saw my share of moter scooter accidents like I heard about from others. I know about the public transit..I really like the subway system in Taipei..lot's of buses and taxi's. In Taichung..it's definitely lacking. I haven't used the buses there so I can't comment on it. I wish that there was a subway system there. *** To be honest, what attracts me to Taichung is the better weather (the rain gets old in Taipei)and adults schools..and leaving Gor-eee-ugh. *** But, you've made some negative comments about the adults schools..hmmm. Taiwan is definitely lacking in services compared to Korea...drycleaners,shoeshine places,Kinko's etc. I was told by a Taiwanese tourist gal once that getting your shoes shined is just not something that the Taiwanese usually do. Whatever. I know what you mean about HATING Korea..some of the younger and older students can be nice but there are definitely some A******S. I guess that I'm tired of that, the bad experiences that I've had and the current anti-American b.s. on top of the racism,xenophobia,stupidity,arrogance,vileness,rudeness,disrespect, and hostility that many foreigners have exerienced here. Oh, and I forgot..my fellow Americans that have been insulted,threatened,spit on and attacked by these RACIST, IDIOT Koreans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Some will openly groan if they find you boring." Geesh. Sounds like the dysfunctional daughter from hell that lives at the guesthouse where I stay. The same for her brother. Groan if I want to use the guesthouse computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They use it for many hours!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm paying money to stay there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Korea it was the opposite - they were the only people you could trust,for the most part." "In Korea - avoid adults." I'm confused. ? "LKK." ?

Thank you for the comments. "Adults behave like kids here." Definitely sounds like Korea..ESPECIALLY many Korean women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've heard how many Japanese are the same way (especially the women)..definitely seems to be an Asian thing. YUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [/b]>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I wasn't referring to that. I was referring to whispering gossip DURING class, passing notes, opening up newspapers in the middle of a lesson, rudely crunching up paper in the middle of a lesson, allowing their phones to interrupt class, and the laughter at the expense of the teacher. Disgusting behavior for adults form any culture, actually. In Korea I found this to be at a minimum. In Taiwan it is the norm.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>"Some will openly groan if they find you boring." Geesh. Sounds like the dysfunctional daughter from hell that lives at the guesthouse where I stay. The same for her brother. Groan if I want to use the guesthouse computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They use it for many hours!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm paying money to stay there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Korea it was the opposite - they were the only people you could trust,for the most part." "In Korea - avoid adults." I'm confused. ? "LKK." ?<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Yeah. I had this one dude who kept doing it. I now give him a real hard time. He's a [email protected] talking gossiper too. Bad news.

LKK refers to "lao kong kong" or 'old thinker' in Taiwanese slang. People who say they are "traditional" in thinking but are actually primitive, close-minded and think they're right at all times.

I meant to type In Korea avoid adults on the street and trust the ones in your classroom exclusively. In Taiwan I have begun to trust neither - only children and teens.